Jule
Styne(1905-1994)

Jule Styne was born Julius
Stein in London in 1905, the first of three children. His parents had
a grocery store. He studied piano with a teacher from the London
Conservatory of Music from the time he was 6 until his family emigrated to
America when he was 8. In Chicago, he studied piano at the Chicago
College of Music, eventually taking on composition courses as well. A
child prodigy, he played with the Chicago, Detroit and St. Louis Symphony
orchestras while still under 12, but his hands were too small for a classical
career. In the liner notes of the CD Michael Feinstein Sings The
Jule Styne Songbook, Styne tells Feinstein the second finger on his right
hand was injured in a factory accident and this ended his classical career.

As a teenager he played in bands and also played pit piano for stage shows;
he played in a pit band in a burlesque house when he was 13, without his
parents' knowledge. He joined the Ben Pollack Band in 1926 which also
included Glenn Miller, Charlie Spivak, Fud Livingston, Gil Rodin, Jack Teagarten
and Benny Goodman. [In the liner notes of the CD Michael Feinstein
Sings The Jule Styne Songbook, Styne tells Feinstein that most of his
melodic themes are jazz tenor solos, which he attributes to his background
with the Ben Pollack Band.]

To impress a girl he wrote his first song, which later was given lyrics by
Ned Miller. [In the liner notes of the CD Michael Feinstein Sings
The Jule Styne Songbook, Styne tells Feinstein the lyrics were written
by Irving Caesar; and the credits read Ned Miller, Chester Cohn and Bennie
Krueger.] The result, SUNDAY, sold five hundred thousand copies of
sheet music; and Styne had his first hit song at age 21.
Subsequently, he wrote LITTLE JOE (1928) for Mildred Bailey, the singer
with the Paul Whiteman band, IN A CANOE (1930) and IT IS THE WORDS, NOT THE
MUSIC (1933).

In 1932, Jule formed his own dance band, Jule Stein and His Society Orchestra.
Around this time he changed his name to Jule Styne to avoid confusion
with Dr. Julius Stein who was head of Music Corporation of America. Among
other gigs, the dance band performed for four weeks for Fanny Brice at the
"225" Club in Chicago, giving Jule insight he could call on 27 years later
for FUNNY GIRL.

Around 1934, Jule moved to New York where he played piano in a number of
bands and began to work as a vocal coach. He conducted the orchestra
for Harry Richman's Lux Radio series. A vocalist he coached, Andrea
Leeds, caught the eye of Hollywood mogul Max Schenk and Jule was offered
a job at Twentieth Century Fox as vocal coach to Tony Martin, Alice Faye,
Shirley Temple, Linda Darnell, Jane Withers, Joan and Constance Bennett and
Mary Martin.

In 1939 he was musical director for Alice Faye's radio show and in 1941,
when 20th cut drastically back on their musicals, he moved to Republic where
he was their resident song writer. He was also loaned out to other,
more prestigious studios. By 1943 Jule had teamed up with Sammy Cahn;
they contracted for a seven-picture deal with Columbia Pictures but only
finished three.

Three Coins in the Fountain won the Academy Award in 1954 for best
song.

Frank Sinatra had many hit records of Styne and Cahn songs and insisted they
write the songs for ANCHORS AWEIGH.

Styne and Cahn had an unsuccessful stage musical in 1944, GLAD TO SEE YOU,
about a touring USO group on the islands where men were in battle which starred
Eddie Foy, Jr., Jane Withers and June Knight. It expired on its Boston opening,
but produced Guess I'll Hang My Tears Out to Dry.

In 1947, Styne and Cahn had their first Broadway smash hit with
HIGH BUTTON SHOES, starring
Nanette Fabray and Phil Silvers. It was based on the book THE SISTERS LIKED
THEM HANDSOME by Stephen Longstreet, who wrote the libretto. Set in
1913, it was about a couple of swindlers, Harrison Floy (Silver) and Mr.
Pontdue (Joey Faye) who arrive in New Brunswick to sell swampland real estate
and fix the upcoming Rutgers-Princeton game. They become involved with
Papa and Mama Longstreet (Nanette Fabray), an unmarried daughter and little
Stevie Longstreet. The production was notable for a KEYSTONE KOPS chase
ballet choreographed by Jerome Robins. The show ran for 727 performances
and won the Donaldson award. It had such hit songs as:

Papa, Won't You Dance With Me

I Still Get Jealous

Also in the cast were Mark Dawson, Jack McCauley, Lois Lee and Johnny Stewart.
Other numbers included:

Can't You Just See Yourself in Love with Me?

There's Nothing like a Model "T"

You're My Girl

Get Away for a Day in the Country

On a Sunday by the Sea

Nobody Ever Died for Dear Old Rutgers

In 1949, the Broadway show
GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES
ran for 740 performances. This time, Jule Styne wrote to the lyrics of Leo
Robin with the libretto by Joseph Fields and Anita Loos based on her book
A GIRL LIKE I. In this show, Carol Channing became a star singing such songs
as:

Diamond's Are a Girl's Best Friend

A Little Girl From Little Rock

Bye Bye, Baby

Also in the cast were George S. Irving, Eric Brotherson, Jack McCauley and
Yvonne Adair. The show was made into a
film in 1953. Other
numbers included:

It's High Time

Just a Kiss Apart

I Love What I'm Doing

Scherzo

It's Delightful down in Chile

You Say You Care

I'm a 'Tingle, I'm a 'Glow

Sunshine

Mamie Is Mimi

Homesick Blues

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

Keeping Cool with Coolidge

Button up with Esmond

You Kill Me

When Love Goes Wrong

Ain't There Anyone Here for Love?

A Ride on a Rainbow

1951 the Broadway revue
TWO ON THE AISLE starred
Bert Lahr and ran for 279 performances. The libretto and lyrics were
by Comden and Green. The hit from this show was If You Hadn't But You
Did. Also in the cast were Dolores Gray, Fred Bryan and Kathryne Mylroie.
Other numbers included:

Show Train

Hold Me, Hold Me, Hold Me

Here She Comes Now

There Never Was a Baby like My Baby

Catch Our Act at the Met

Give a Little - Get a Little

Everlasting

The Clown

How Will He Know?

If

In THEY'RE PLAYING OUR SONG (interviews with American songwriters by Max
Wilk, published 1997 by Da Capo Press), Styne talks about the finale of this
revue: "The character Bert was playing was Siegfried, and we mixed
up a finale. Brunnhilde was in a fire up there and Bert walked down
and looked at her upstage, and she was screaming at him. "Ho you
to ho, ho you to ho." The fire was burning and whatnot, the
Rhinemaidens on the side, it was a combination of all Wagner girls, nude
in the forest, nude girls in the trees, and Bert walked down, very noble,
almost like Richard II, and he looked at the fire and took out a seltzer
bottle and put the whole fire out. But with such great dignity; he
wasn't doing just a burlesque act, he played it as if he had a chore, like
"My God, there's a fire, and I'll put it out and save this girl," and he
just squirted the selzer out, and he came down and said, "And that
was that." Such a scream I never heard from an audience."

1953 the Broadway show
HAZEL FLAGG, lyrics
by Bob Hilliard, libretto by Ben Hecht based on
NOTHING SACRED (1937), a
screenplay written by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, ran for 190 performances.
The plot was that a brattish girl (Gallagher) wants to get away from
New York and claims she's dying, allowing the city to open hearts and wallets.
The cast included Helen Gallagher, Thomas Mitchell, Sheree North, Benay
Venuta, Jack Whiting, John Howard, Dean Campbell, Ross Martin, John Brascia
and Jonathan Harris. The hit from this was Every Street's a Boulevard
in Old New York.

Additional songs included:

A Little More Heart

The World Is Beautiful Today

The Rutland Bounce

I'm Glad I'm Leaving

Hello, Hazel

How Do You Speak to an Angel?

Autograph Chant

I Feel like I'm Gonna Live Forever

You're Gonna Dance with Me, Willie

Who Is the Bravest?

Salomee

Everybody Loves to Take a Bow

Laura de Maupassant

Money Burns a Hole in my Pocket

That's What I Like

Champagne and Wedding Cake

1954 the Broadway show
PETER PAN had lyrics
by Adolf Green and Betty Comden with libretto based on James Barrie's play.
The score was originally written by Moose Charlap with lyrics by Carolyn
Leigh, but Jule and Comden and Green were brought it during previews. The
show starred Mary Martin and
Cyril Ritchard and
ran for 154 performances and was shown on NBC in 3 different versions.
Also in the cast were Margalo Gillmore, Sondra Lee, Robert Harrington,
Kathy Nolan and Joseph Stafford. The Styne/Comden/Green songs were:

Never Never Land

Wendy

Distant Melody

Captain Hook's Waltz

Oh, My Mysterious Lady

1956 Another Broadway smash hit
BELLS ARE RINGING, with
lyrics and libretto by the team of Betty Comden and Adolph Green. The show
ran for 924 performances. In addition to Judy Holliday, in her first
Broadway appearance, the cast included Sydney Chaplin, Jean Stapleton, Eddie
Lawrence, Peter Gennaro and Eddie Heim. The story was about an operator
at an answering service who becomes embroiled in the lives of her customers.
It was made into a film
in 1960. The hits from this were:

Long Before I Knew You

The Party's Over

Just in Time

In addition, Jule's score featured the following songs:

Bells Are Ringing

It's a Perfect Relationship

On My Own

It's a Simple Little System

Is it a Crime?

Hello, Hello There!

I Met a Girl

Mu-cha-cha

Drop That Name

Salzburg

The Midas Touch

I'm Goin' Back

Better than a Dream

Do it Yourself

1958 the Broadway show
SAY, DARLING ran 332
performances with a cast including David Wayne, Vivian Blaine, Robert Morse,
Johnny Desmond, Mitchell Gregg, Steve Condos, Matt Mattox, Jerome Cowan,
Constance Ford, Walter Klavun and Horace McMahon. Elliott Gould was
a dancer in the chorus. The lyrics were by Betty Comden and Adolph
Green and the libretto was by Marian and Richard Bissell and Abe Burrows
based on Bissell's experience having his previous book 7 1/2 CENTS made into
the Broadway musical
PAJAMA GAME (1954).
Jule's score featured:

Try to Love Me

It's Doom

The Husking Bee

It's the Second Time You Meet That Matters

Let the Lower Lights Be Burning

Chief of Love

Say, Darling

The Carnival Song

Dance Only with Me

Something's Always Happening on the River

1959 the Broadway show
GYPSY, Jule's masterpiece,
based on the early life of stripper Gypsy Rose Lee, with lyrics by Stephen
Sondheim and libretto by Arthur Laurents ran for 702 performances. The
cast included Ethel Merman, Jack Klugman, Sandra Church, Paul Wallace, Maria
Karnilova, Bernie Knee, Jacqueline Mayro, Lane Bradbury, Laura Leslie and
Karen Moore. It was made into a
film in 1959 and a
TV version was made in 1993.
The hits from this included:

Everything's Coming Up Roses

Together Wherever We Go

You'll Never Get Away From Me

Some People

Small World

Jule's score also featured:

May We Entertain You

Baby June and Her Newsboys

Mr. Goldstone, I Love You

Little Lamb

Dainty June and Her Farmboys

If Mamma Was Married

All I Need Is the Girl

You Gotta Have a Gimmick

Let Me Entertain You

Rose's Turn

GYPSY had successful Broadway revivals in 1974 with Angela Lansbury,1989
with Tyne Daly, 2004 with Bernadette Peters and 2008 with Patti LuPone. In
THEY'RE PLAYING OUR SONG (interviews with American songwriters by Max Wilk,
published 1997 by Da Capo Press), Styne opines Gypsy "was the biggest
kind of landmark that ever was for me. I became the superb dramatist
out of that. ... It was, of course, one of the greatest shows I have
done."

1960 the Broadway show
DO RE MI, with lyrics
by Comden and Green and libretto by Garson Kanin based on a novella of Kanin's
about how the Mafia comes out of retirement, brought Phil Silvers back to
Broadway after 10 years. The show ran for 400 performances. Also
in the cast were Nancy Walker, David Burns, John Reardon, Nancy Dussault,
George Givot and George Mathews. The big hit from this show was Make
Someone Happy.

Additional numbers were:

Waiting, Waiting

All You Need Is a Quarter

Take a Job

It's Legitimate

I Know About Love

Cry Like the Wind

Ambition

Fireworks

What's New at the Zoo?

Asking for You

The Late, Late Show

Adventure

All of My Life

Who Is Mr. Big?

He's a V.I.P.

1961 the Broadway show,
SUBWAYS ARE FOR SLEEPING,
again with lyrics and libretto by Comden and Green. This ran for 205
performances. The show was based on ten short stores about lost souls
from a collection by Edmund Love. The cast included Phyllis Newman,
Sydney Chaplin, Carol Lawrence, Gene Varrone, Orson Bean, John Sharpe, Cy
Young and Bob Gorman. Michael Bennett was in the chorus. Jule's
score featured:

Subways Are for Sleeping

Girls like Me

Subway Directions

Ride Through the Night

I'm Just Taking My Time

I Was a Shoo-in

Who Knows What Might Have Been?

Strange Duet

Swing Your Projects

I Said it and I'm Glad

Be a Santa

How Can You Describe a Face?

I Just Can't Wait

Comes Once in a Lifetime

What Is this Feeling in the Air?

1964 the Broadway show
FUNNY GIRL, lyrics
by Bob Merrill and libretto by Isobel Lennart. This ran for 1,348
performances. The cast included Barbra Streisand, Sydney Chaplin, Kay
Medford, Jean Stapleton and Danny Meehan. It was made into a
film in 1968. The hits
from this show were:

People

I'm the Greatest Star

The Music That Makes Me Dance

Don't Rain on My Parade

Other numbers included:

If a Girl Isn't Pretty

Cornet Man

Who Taught Her Everything

His Love Makes Me Beautiful

I Want to Be Seen with You Tonight

Henry Street

You Are Woman

Sadie, Sadie

Find Yourself a Man

Rat-tat-tat-tat

Who Are You Now?

In the liner notes of the CD Michael Feinstein Sings The Jule Styne
Songbook, Styne tells Feinstein he considers FUNNY GIRL his best score.

1967 HALLELUJAH,
BABY! ran 293 performances with a book by Arthur Laurents and a score
by Comden and Green. The show was originally written for Lena Horne as a
tough, hard-hitting black pilgrim's progress through the changing social
attitudes of the 20th century, covering six decades. The central character,
played by Uggams, is Georgina, who goes from a cleaning girl to make it in
show business. The cast included Leslie Uggams, Robert Hooks, Allen
Case, Marilyn Cooper, Alan Weeks, Hope Clarke, Lillian Hayman, Winston DeWitt
Hemsley, Justin McDonough, Garrett Morris, Barbara Sharma, Clifford Allen,
Lou Angel, Sandra Lein, Saundra McPherson and Kenneth Scott. The show
won the Tony Award for Best Musical of 1968 and Leslie Uggams won for Best
Actress in a Musical, tying with Patricia Routledge of DARLING OF THE DAY.
Lillian Hayman won the Tony for Best Supporting Actress in a
musical. Jule and Comden and Green won the 1968 Tony for Best Composer
and Lyricist. Jule's award-winning score featured:

My Own Morning

The Slice

Feet Do Yo' Stuff

Watch My Dust

Smile, Smile

Witches' Brew

Being Good

I Wanted to Change Him

Another Day

Talking to Yourself

Hallelujah, Baby!

Not Mine

I Don't Know Where She Got it

Now's the Time

1968 DARLING OF THE
DAY had a run of only 32 performances. The lyrics were by E. Y.
Harburg and the libretto was by Nunnally Johnson, based on Arnold Bennett's
novel BURIED ALIVE which had been made into the film
HOLY MATRIMONY (1943). The
show was about British artist Priam Farll (Price) who hated the Establishment
and abandoned England after being ostracized by Queen Victoria. When
King Edward VII came into power, he ordered the world-famous painter to return
home to receive a knighthood. Farll's butler dies en route to
England and Farll assumes his identity, claiming that the famous artist has
been buried at sea. Farll then begins a new life. The cast included
Vincent Price, Patricia Routledge, Teddy Green, Beth Howland, Joy Nichols,
Charles Welch, Brenda Forbes, Mitchell Jason, Reid Klein, Marc Jorda and
Peter Woodthorpe. Patricia Routledge won the 1968 Tony for Best Actress
in a Musical, tying with Leslie Uggams of HALLELUIA, BABY. Jule's
score featured:

He's a Genius

To Get Out of this World Alive

It's Enough to Make a Lady Fall in Love

A Gentleman's Gentleman

Let's See What Happens

Panache

I've Got a Rainbow Working for Me

Money, Money, Money

That Something Extra Special

What Makes a Marriage Merry

Not on Your Nellie

Sunset Tree

Butler in the Abbey

In the liner notes of the CD Michael Feinstein Sings The Jule Styne
Songbook, Styne tells Feinstein that LET'S SEE WHAT HAPPENS is his favorite
song.

1970LOOK TO THE
LILIES reunited Julie with his long ago lyricist Sammy Cahn; the libretto
was by Leonard Spigelgass. The show based on the film
LILIES OF THE FIELD (1963)
ran only 25 performances. The cast included Al Freeman, Jr., Shirley
Booth, Taina Elg, Carmen Alvarez, Patti Karr and Titos Vandis. The
score included.

Look to the Lilies

There Comes a Time

Follow the Lamb

I, Yes Me, That's Who

Kick the Door

I'd Sure like to Give it a Shot

One Little Brick at a Time

Some Kind of Man

1971 PRETTYBELLE with lyrics and libretto by Bob Merrill. The
cast included Angela Lansbury. Mark Dawson, Michael Jason, Bert Michaels
and Peter Lombard. The show closed out of town in Boston, never making
it to Broadway. Jule's score featured

Prettybelle

Manic Depressives

You Ain't Hurtin' Your Ole Lady None

You Never Looked Better

To a Small Degree

Back from the Great Beyond

How Could I Know?

I Never Did Imagine

In the Japanese Gardens

Individual Thing

I Met a Man

God's Garden

The No-tell Motel

I'm in a Tree

When I'm Drunk I'm Beautiful

1972SUGAR had
a run of 505 performances. Lyrics were by Bob Merrill and the libretto
was by Peter Stone based on the film SOME LIKE IT HOT (1959) about two out
of work musicians who accidentally witness the St. Valentine's Day massacre
in Chicago and disguise themselves as women in order to join an all-girl
band and get out of town. The cast included Robert Morse, Elaine Joyce,
Cyril Ritchard, Tony
Roberts, Sheila Smith, Steve Condos and Alan Cass. Jule's score featured:

Penniless Bums

The Beauty That Drives Men Mad

We Could Be Close

Sun on My Face

November Song

Sugar

Hey, Why Not!

Beautiful Through and Through

What Do You Give to a Man Who's Had Everything?

It's Always Love

When You Meet a Man in Chicago

Some like it Hot

Maple Leaf Rag

Dirty Old Men

Doing it for Sugar

I'm Naive

Magic Nights

1974 LORELEI was
a revamping of GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES which ran for 320 performances.
The cast included Carol Channing recreating her role of Lorelei Lee,
Jack Fletcher, Robert Fitch, Tamara Long, Peter Palmer, Lee Roy Reams and
Ian Tucker. The original Leo Robin lyrics were supplemented by additional
lyrics from Comden and Green and Gail Parent and Kenny Solms wrote the libretto.
Jule's score featured:

Looking Back

Bye Bye Baby

A Little Girl from Little Rock

I Love What I'm Doing

It's Delightful down in Chile

I Won't Let You Get Away

Keeping Cool with Coolidge

Men

Mamie Is Mimi

Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend

Lorelei

Homesick Blues

It's High Time

I'm A'tingle, I'm A'glow

Paris, Paris

Just a Kiss Apart

1978BAR MITZVAH
BOY with lyrics by Don Black and libretto by Jack Rosenthal based on
the prize-winning BBC production. That show ran for 78 performances
in London and never was produced on Broadway. The cast included Joyce
Blair, Vivienne Martin, Ray C. Davis, Benny Lee, Barry Martin, Harry Towb,
Barry Angel, Zelah Clarke, Leonie Cosman, Gordon Faith, Ashley Knight and
Peter Whitman. Jule's score featured:

1985 PIECES OF EIGHT with lyrics by Susan Birkenhead, and book by
Michael Stewart and Mark Bramble, based on TREASURE ISLAND by Robert Louis
Stevenson. Cast included George Hearn, George Lee Andrews, Graeme Campbell
and Jonathan Ross. Opened November 27, 1985 at the Citadel Theatre
in Edmonton, Canada and closed out of town.

1993 THE RED SHOES
with book by Marsha Norman and lyrics by Norman and Paul Stryker (a pseudonym
for Bob Merrill, Jule's FUNNY GIRL collaborator), based on the 1948
movie directed by Michael
Powell about a ballerina who sacrifices everything for her art. Cast
included Roger Rees (who left during previews and was replaced by the late
Steve Barton), Hugh Panaro, George De La Pena, Leslie Browne, John Marshall,
Tad Ingram and Margaret Illmann. It closed after 5 performances.
Ethan Mordden (writing in THE HAPPIEST CORPSE I'VE EVER SEEN (subtitled
THE LAST TWENTY-FIVE YEARS OF THE BROADWAY MUSICAL) published by Palgrave
Macmillan 2004) called this "a work of the most spirited content".
Jule's score included:

Impresario

It's a Fairy Tale

Am I To Wish Her Love?

Corps de Ballet

When It Happens to You

I Make the Rule

The Audition

Top of the Sky

Be Somewhere

The Rag

Do Svedanaya

Come Home

When You Dance for a King

The Ballet of the Red Shoes

Most composers worked on Broadway shows before being called to Hollywood.
Jule reversed that. He spent ten years writing for films before his successful
Broadway career.

He was a member of the Songwriter's Hall of Fame. Jule Styne wrote
1500 songs during a 7-decade career. He died in Mount Sinai Hospital
in 1994 where he had undergone open heart surgery 6 weeks previously.

A 1976 quote from JULE, THE STORY OF COMPOSER JULE STYNE by Theodore Taylor:
I've led an exciting and hopefully a productive life. I've
worked with some marvelous people, even a few creative giants, in both films
and on the stage. A few have been the best talents of our time. Any
composer who could write for both a Sinatra and a Streisand in one lifetime
is lucky. And if I think about GYPSY, I think what a privilege it was
to work with Jerry Robbins, Arthur Laurents, Steve Sondheim, Ethel Merman.
That's a lot of talent for one show.

Stage shows Jule Styne was involved in as composer or producer include:

Writing in THE HAPPIEST CORPSE I'VE EVER SEEN (subtitled THE LAST TWENTY-FIVE
YEARS OF THE BROADWAY MUSICAL) published by Palgrave Macmillan 2004, Ethan
Mordden opined that Jule Styne "never tired of composing, having never met
a promising talent he wouldn't help, and having left behind the unique style
of the Jule Styne Swing Ballad."